Marc Myers writes daily on jazz legends and legendary jazz recordings

May 06, 2013

Jo Jones: The Drums, 1973

We tend to think of jazz drummers simply as guys who are fast with a set of sticks or brushes and good at keeping time. But like all great jazz musicians, the best drummers know the instrument's long history and the styles of all those who came before them. This was especially true of Jo Jones, who pioneered a new jazz drumming style while in Count Basie's band starting in 1936. Jones took on the honorific "Papa" in later years to differentiate himself from drummer Philly Joe Jones.

In 1973, Papa Jo recorded a highly unusual album that has gone unnoticed by many jazz fans. Titled The Drums, the album was recorded in Paris by Hugues Panassié—a French jazz producer and critic who founded the Hot Club de France in 1932. Jones was on tour there at the time with Milt Buckner.

What makes this album so unusual is that there is no music. Jones simply talks about the evolution of jazz drumming and illustrates different drummers' styles and the listener gets to hear what Jo Jones' speaking voice sounded like at length plus illustrated samples of Jones playing in the styles of significant drummers.

For years, Jones' The Drums has been available only as a $50 import. But I found it as a $5 download at the mp3 page of Bruce Klauber's JazzLegends.com (scroll down near the bottom). At the site's home page, it looks like there are dozens of other gems offered by the site.

Note that a link for the download is sent to you by email soon after you pay, and that you may want to review the downloaded track titles against the text playlist that accompanies the download. Also, the download does not include Sweet Sue, the only track that featured pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith.

About

Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of a Song" (Grove) and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax is a two-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Association's best blog award.